IDENTIFYING INBORN GENETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY TO DEVELOPMENT OF CANCER METASTASIS

​Shown is the genetic timeline of colon cancer development as driven by the accumulation of somatic mutations. Remarkably, this accumulation stops with the development of early colon cancers, and no new mutations are detected upon whole genome sequencing of metastatic deposits derived from colon cancer primary tumors. If colon cancer metastasis are genetically the same as colon cancer primary tumors, this raises the intriguing question as to whether capacity of tumors to spread and metastasize may be due to genetic variations in the host, and not to differences in the tumors.